Tales of Chills and Thrills: The Mystery Thriller Horror Box Set (7 Mystery Thriller Horror Novels) (51 page)

“There was a car in front of me, maybe
a hundred yards or so, and nobody behind. We were in the left lane with nothing
but faded lines on asphalt to separate us from the traffic going the other
way.”

Mara could no longer look at Samuel.
Her vision clouded from the tears oozing from the corner of her eyes.

“So anyway, the car in front hits the
brakes hard. I see the flash and think he probably wanted a lasagna and passed
the parking lot going forty-five or fifty. But then I got that feeling in my
gut, the kind that probably comes from evolutionary instinct, if you believe in
that kind of thing.

“The car fishtails, and by now I’ve
closed the distance and I’ve taken my foot off the accelerator. Dad always got
pissed when I used the brake to slow down on the highway. He said if you remove
your foot from the gas, you’ll slow down and won’t scare the shit out of the
people behind you.

“By now the car is spinning on the
slick roads and I see the side of some featureless sedan. And as soon as it
crosses to the right into the slow lane, I saw the headlights from a car coming
in the opposite direction and crossing the double yellow line.”

The blues player stopped strumming.
The barista stood with a dirty dish rag in one hand and an empty mug in
another. Everyone inside the coffee shop stopped and stood like motionless
creatures trapped in a dying world. Samuel’s eyes shifted from one to the next
as their skin, hair and clothing morphed into a greyscale curtain of despair.
He watched as teeth fell out and eyes turned to obsidian voids. The oppressive
silence of the reversion swallowed the hustle of the coffee shop. The smell of
incense and roasted coffee disappeared as well. Samuel watched the lights dim,
and the walls dropped their adornments like a tattered robe, allowing the
crooked and rotten planks to show through.

“The headlights looked like eyes,”
Mara said. “I know that’s a corny cliché, but it’s true. The car looked like an
angry beast. I remember starting to swerve the wheel in the midst of Tommy
yelling. Time sped up and then slowed. I watched as the filaments in the
headlights exploded on impact. That was the last thing I could see. I remember
thinking I wasn’t even going to see the face of the other driver. Was it a man?
Woman? Were they drunk, lost, disoriented? Were they courting death, like me?

“The hood shot upward into the shape
of an inverted V on impact. I can’t really explain the sound. You would
literally piss your pants if you heard it. I think I did. I felt it more than I
heard it. It was like the oncoming beast was eating my car.”

Mara paused. She put a napkin to each
eye while Samuel stared at his folded hands. More and more of the creatures
from the dying locality appeared in the coffee shop in complete silence. They
stood next to the table and behind Mara. Samuel tried not to look into those
lost faces.

“I’m short. I was short,” Mara said,
stumbling over her existence within an unknown world buried in the dream of
another. “The seatbelt locked and I felt the burn on my neck.”

Samuel lifted his head and saw Mara tugging
at the collar of her shirt. She pulled it down far enough for him to see the
bruise he noticed when he arrived at the Barren.

“And then blackness. I don’t remember
pain, not sure what happened to Tommy, what happened to anything.”

The tears came freely, without Mara
using words to plug the dike.

“I can’t even remember how long there
was blackness. When I opened my eyes again, I was here,” she said, using an arm
to scan the room of the standing undead. “Well, not here, but here in this
locality.”

“Where?” Samuel asked, unable to speak
more than a single syllable.

“Wandering through that fucking
forest. The one where nooses hang like leaves from the branches. The one you
came from.”

He paused and put a hand over his
mouth. “Do you think you’re dead?” he asked.

“Do you think I’m dead?” she said. “I
guess I wasn’t sure up until now.”

Samuel felt the room shudder. The
forms in front of his face shimmered as if the entire room were submersed in
water. He lifted his shoulders, sensing what was coming.

“I’m waking up.”

He reached across the table to grasp
Mara’s hand. She extended hers and looked into his face through puffy, red
eyes.

Samuel blinked the sleep from his eyes,
staring at the back of Kole’s head as he slept on the floor of the cabin. Major
glanced down at Samuel and then returned his stare to the window and the undead
sentinels on the other side.

Chapter 11

The four of them sat like
prisoners within the walls of the one-room cell. Major shifted every so
often, bending and craning his neck to acquire a better view of the army of
undead soldiers surrounding the cabin. Their presence destroyed the Barren and
any hope of exploring it further. Mara and Samuel sat on their respective
chairs, across from each other at the table, while Kole remained slumped on the
floor, running his finger through the dust. One lonely pot of gruel remained,
which they hoped would last for as long as they needed it. Major saved three
cloudy bottles of water, now positioned at his feet.

The harbinger of the reversion, the
looming cloud, blotted out the sky. It devoured the tops of the trees and crept
ever eastward in the march toward the end. Swirls of grey and slate slurry
moved through the silent, roiling mass. Any light Samuel could remember from
his arrival in this place had become a distant memory. The standing
human remains continued to sway back and forth, as if caught in a slight
breeze.

Mara held her chin low on her chest and
fidgeted with her hands. Samuel saw her fingernails and winced. Ragged lines of
red ran down her cuticles, raw from her own teeth and saliva. Her
once-luxurious, black hair, which radiated the ambient light of the coffee
shop, lay in greasy, clumped masses, flakes of dandruff speckled like maggots
on rotting meat. Samuel could not see her eyes, and he thought it was probably
better this way. He didn’t think he could handle the sorrow contained in them.
Every so often, Mara would sigh and shake her head, never raising it.

“We’re running out of time.” Major spoke,
the most he had in days, if days could still be measured here.

“They’ve got us pinned down. You saw what
happened when Kole tried getting through.”

Kole looked up at the mention of his name
and shrugged his shoulders.

“What’s the cloud do?” Mara asked, head
tilted upward but face covered in stringy hair.

“It’s an eater of worlds. It leaves
nothing behind.”

“Will the creatures kill us? Can they
kill us?” Samuel asked.

“Death by zombie, eh?” Major asked with a
chuckle. “Like running out to a cop and waving a gun in his face. This is the
land of suicide.”

“What about the wolves?” Samuel asked.

Major sat upright and raised his
eyebrows. “What about them?”

“Are they gone? Did the cloud get to them
already?”

Major shrugged.

“If we could get them here, it might be
enough to distract the creatures outside,” Samuel said.

“For what?” Kole asked. “Distract them so
we can go where? Do you see the fucking storm brewing out there? I might opt
for having my brains eaten instead of what that evil cloud might bring.”

Mara dug her forehead into the heel of
her palms.

“I’m not ready to lie down and die,”
Samuel said.

“Yeah, well maybe you should be,” Kole
said.

“Is there any rope in this cabin?” Samuel
asked.

Major held both palms out. “Haven’t you
had enough of swinging from the noose?”

“Listen,” Samuel said. “I’m climbing to
the roof and then, with rope and the low-hanging branches, I’m getting out in
front of the horde.”

“They’re as far as the eye can see,” Kole
said, referring to the undead swarming the land.

“But they’re slow. If I can get out in
front, there might be a chance.”

“Better than sitting here,” Mara said.

Major pushed a chair aside and opened a
cabinet near the table, lifting out a bucket. Tied to the handle was a coiled
rope.

“The hemp looks rotted and shaky. But
it’s all yours if you want it,” Major said.

Samuel stood and grabbed it. He untied
the knot from the handle and pulled a three-foot section taut. He raised his
eyebrows and looked at Major. The old man smiled and looked at Kole. Kole shook
his head and went back to circling his finger around a knot in the floorboard.
Mara stood.

“Looks like they’re a few yards away from
the front door. If you get out there quickly, you might be able to shimmy up
the corner post and hop onto the roof of the cabin before they close in.”

“Any other suggestions?” Samuel asked,
trying to keep the glimmer of hope from overtaking reality.

“Yeah, send the bitch first,” Kole said.

Samuel ignored him. He set the rope down
on the floor and began to pull it through his hands, a foot or two at a time.
He noticed several places where the fibers felt weak or had begun to unravel,
but not enough for him to consider cutting it and using a shorter piece. Samuel
guessed he had about twenty feet of rope he could depend on and another ten
that could snap under pressure.

“Please get us out of here,” Mara
whispered.

Samuel nodded.

Mara rose up on her toes and placed a
kiss on Samuel’s lips. He felt the push of her warm breath on his mouth and the
excitement of having a woman so close. But when her lips contacted his, his
mind reeled. Conflicting emotions and deep sorrow raced through his body.

“Time is short,” Major said, breaking the
spell. “Take this knife. It ain’t much, but…”

Samuel looked at Mara and did not speak.
She sat back down on the chair and crossed her legs. Major stepped between her
and Samuel.

“Consider going east. If you can get out
in front of the horde, that’s great, but it’s the cloud you’re really racing.”

Major shoved his hand out to Samuel, and
the two men shook. Kole waved them off without moving from the floor.

“Get high and do it fast. The longer you
stay on the ground, the easier it will be for them to pin you down,” Major
said.

“I’ll do my best,” Samuel said, searching
for a more convincing line and not finding it.

Major walked toward the door, followed by
Samuel. Mara remained, as did Kole, who didn’t bother looking up. The old man
placed one hand on the knob and the other on the back of the door. He took a
deep breath and closed his eyes. After springing them open, he turned to face
Samuel.

“Ready?” he asked.

Samuel nodded.

Major turned the squeaky knob with one
hand and yanked the plank door open. The front line of the horde turned their
empty faces from the ground to the cabin. Mouths hung open in silent screams as
the dirt shuffled beneath their feet. Samuel stood, fixed to the cabin floor as
the creatures moved toward him. He froze, his mouth turning dry and his heart
accelerating in his chest.

“And out you go,” Kole said from behind
him.

Samuel felt two hands strike his shoulder
blades, sending him sprawling to the ground in front of the cabin. He spun
around in time to see Kole’s wicked grin disappearing behind the door.

***

The first thing Samuel did was reach down
to secure the knife on his hip. He lifted his head and saw feet moving
toward him, sending up clouds of brown dust. Most of them were bare, and many
had bones poking through thin skin.

Samuel pushed off the ground and onto his
backside. He watched dozens of the horde meander in his direction, arms at
their sides and heads cocked in one direction. Their black orbs remained open
with an empty stare, as if they felt his presence.

Samuel glanced back at the window of the
cabin to see shifting, pale faces behind the greasy film coating the panes. He
looked to the right, where a support post held the roof. Samuel stood and
gripped the top of the post with both hands. He used his upper body to pull
himself toward the roof, his legs locked around the pole to prevent a
slide back down. He heaved his body onto the mossy, wooden-shake roof
and rolled onto his back before pulling his legs up, too. The formless, silent
cloud tumbled in the space where the sky used to be. It looked down on Samuel,
and he thought he detected motion from left to right, the cloud heading toward
the east to conclude its consummation of this place. Swirls of deep grey
extended out and contracted like oil in water. Before he could lose himself in
the shapeless horror of it, he felt the cabin shudder.

Samuel leaned over the edge and gazed out
upon a sea of creatures shambling toward the cabin ten feet below. He watched
countless heads with tufts of tangled hair pushing forward like a crowd at a
rock concert. They nudged and leaned on each other but never stopped moving
forward. He noticed they didn’t try to open the door or break the window. They
had no concern for those inside, the ones the reversion would swallow
whole. Instead, they gathered under the support pole, pursuing him, the one who
left the sanctity of their final resting place, attempting to escape the
inevitable.